Cynique

Mythology is full of tragedy and murder and jealousy and lust! Its villains prevail as often as its heroes.

Well, the results are in. "Black Panther" which opened this week-end was a box office sensation to the tune of $192,000,000+, primarily due to the patronage of black people deliriously happy to have a super hero with the same skin color as theirs. These theatergoers showed up in droves, many of them decked out in African garb, all ready to have their hunger for something other than movies depicting the drudgery and cruelty of slavery in America, satisfied. Reviews of this film have been good, and popular opinion has been overwhelming in its enthusiastic approval. That the movie's director is also black, is chocolate icing on the devils food cake. But there are always voices of dissent and social media provides a platform for this. The pros and cons of this movie are being debated on "Twitter", i hear. I recently expressed my prejudices toward what i perceived as arrogant immigrants and the upsurge of African surnames dominating the film and publishing industry. I was miffed by these dark-skinned people with clipped British accents and unpronounceable names benefiting from all the "gains" black Americans fought for, only to see roles for them fall into the laps of Africans. e.g. In this year's academy award nominee "Get Out", the romantic lead who is a professional photographer is played by a goofy looking African with blood-shot eyes, while the comic relief is provided by a black American actor personifying bufoonery and profanity. So, the article below resonated with me. I'm sure the majority of black Americans will dismiss the author's complaints as those of a nit-picking malcontent but, naturally, i didn't. I love iconoclasts. Spoiler Alert: the plot details are discussed, panther&h=ATMV0J3q8-ZfvtX8aow9Cv0ru_ePcQJqd3t8_BYWcQjc7tm6DbNhaTqVgNStj9i3xsiKcKVUx3hXvGLR4MRK5noy8Rv4m-Un2ovo4wEymSRm3_RKi5ZbWrXxJftQ9jsro4Qu8hTJK0J0MmUHo9wAOFcZnZ2hA39tmB8U3AYvtf0qEE5OaqkkrD1O27yCpqYwUfdt_iilQ6QJLf8gB_1bD7BvkIDFLg8avEziI0v67spzxSLooR2Q4UXuzhiNCiN9kvKXSynG4Gn84A

Why?

I forgot to add to my previous post that I prefer science to religion, because science consists of examination and enlightenment, and religion is about instruction and obedience. Science stimulates; religion stagnates. Religion claims the power of prayer, but to me, praying is an exercise in energizing positive thought waves, and has its counterpart in the "wishing" indulged in by the non-religious. Whether prayers or wishes come into fruition depends upon Fate, which is not wedded to the hopes of mere mortals because it is fickle. A meme which always pops when a national disaster occurs. Just substitute "Florida"' for "Texas".

Science and religion would seem to be polar opposites. Religion is about faith and emotion. Science is about facts and intellect. But they both pass the litmus test for being steadfast. Science has unshakable faith in its evidence. Religion is totally convinced that God is a fact of life. They are both sects which co-exist because they are 2 sides of the same coin minted in our psyches. IMO, science is already a religion complete with disciples and self-worship. And religion is a science with the power to convert the human species. i make these assertions by thinking outside the box when it comes to what is what.

Well, that settles it! Harassed "Me too" damsels in distress have nobody but God to blame for men being unable to resist their charms.

Hopefully, in the process of thinking for one's self, one will make the choice to be objective. A difficult aspiration.

Just finished listening to the lecture which i found very compelling, and all of your comments were even more so. i agree that everything can and should be questioned. The idea that time brings change is not hard to accept. There are those who offer a metaphysical concept claiming: "as above, so below", which posits that the answer to everything is above, just waiting to be channeled from this higher realm by those below whose minds will process the question into an answer. But, frankly, the whole subject boggles my mind. i do believe that we inexplicably know things that we've never been taught. One of the caveats that i recently posted said: "He who knows and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him! We are all on a journey, seeking answers which require an open mind.

This old song which on the surface is just a nonsense rhyme, can also be taken as a metaphor: Row, row, row, your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.

I've also had the "losing teeth" dream from childhood, but there was never anything specific that happened later that i could connect it to. And yes, as soon as i wonder about one of my kids, they'll phone. And i always "think somebody up" whom i haven't seen in a while. i dream every night - i'm told that this is because i sleep on my back. For the past 10 years, those i mostly dream about are deceased family members and the many friends who have all passed on. These dreams are very vivid and i am interacting with these people just like i did in "real" life. In one i was actually arguing with a friend... Another recurring dream is that i'm trying to find my way out of a factory building with many floors, walking through the halls, weaving in and out of machinery, up and down staairways, never finding an exit. In every one of these dreams i have lost my purse containing my ID and all of my credits cards. (Since i am retired and have no pressing financial worries, i don't know what this means.) I also fly on a regular basis in my dreams. I just pump myself up and levitate, soaring through the air above the trees for a brief time. i know everybody has had the dream where they're late for a class, or aren't ready for a test, or don't have a paper that is due. This is supposed to be a common dream. And I'm sure you all, like me, have had the experience of misplacing something and later after checking all the places you previously searched, the object appears where you've already looked. I, personally, get sooo frustrated when i lose something that i think my vibes propel it into another dimension. Once i calm down and move on to something else, the object will shift back into my realm, and i'll come across it later in a place where i'm certain i looked before. I've never taken magic mushrooms or LSD, but i've had prescribed medications affect my mind with hallucinations. Alone in my bedroom at night, strangers would be fading in and out all around me while other shadowy figures hovered in my peripheral vision. Objects would be vibrating, the atmosphere glittering with "fairy dust", - sometime even phantom smells would fill my nostrils. And i'd experience a spinning sensation. This was after my husband passed and i lived alone before moving in with my daughter. i took myself off those mind-altering meds. One experience told to me by others, is about a dream where a deceased loved one appears, and is a radiant version of herself, speaking no words but just beaming there, obviously happy. My father said this happened to him after my mother died, and this gave him complete closure. One time a co-worker who had a secret crush on an accident victim who was a mutual friend of ours, confided to me that shortly after her death, she appeared to him in a dream, and was all aglow, looking more beautiful than ever. He was particularly moved by this because he felt that maybe, somehow, she knew of his deep feelings for her. i can't help but be intrigued by the idea that what we call "life" is a dream, and that death is an awakening rather than an ending.

I don't know anything about an app. i just clicked on the caption of another person's picture on FaceBook, and that took me to the page where they do all this foolishness. You pull up your "pose of choice" from any pics you have saved on your computer, then your final result appears after a few seconds. There was a download feature but i didn't even do that. i just copied the final result that appeared and pasted it in my on line photo"album".

A popular site on FaceBook currently has millions of people clicking on to in order to have their pictures photo-shopped in different identities. This nonsense is such good escape from the BS going in the world, that i knock myself having fun going there. The ludicrous example included here is my latest side-buster. LMAO Say what you will about FaceBook, there are a lot of memes which appear there that i so relate to and i'm going to start posting them here on a regular basis to serve as a change of pace.

Looks like twins, Mel and Del, will have to broadened the kinship between them that I recognized earlier. I am now about to induct zaji into your family and declare the 3 of you to be triplets. Your souls are not strangers. And, to my eyes, all of your words resonate with a familiarity of unknown origin. And check out Troy! Expounding with the expertise honed by his technological background, grooving on the same new age wave length with us, sharing some deep thoughts!

But the ones i listed, that fit the definition are.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two seemingly opposing and contradictory elements are juxtaposed. Some of my favorites are: Jumbo shrimp, awfully good, definite possibility, growing smaller, least favorite.

The bad news is that knowing someone can read your mind, would inhibit your thoughts. Me, i wouldn't want others to be aware of what i'm thinking, especially if it was unflattering to them. This is a natural reaction and if taken to the next level, mental telepathy could be stifling. The "good" news would be that telepathy could lead to training ourselves to only think good things which could lead to a silent Utopian world inhabited by people, all of one mind, on their way to returning to the supreme intelligence from which we originated... Our facades are the costumes we wear in the Masquerade Ball known as Life. Private thoughts are what keep us in touch with whom we really are. IMO, this double-consciousness is inherent in the human condition wherein we shift between these 2 existences. We may not have come here talking, but it is where we went to in the course of forming social groups so necessary for survival. Introspection is a haven that offers a respite from a chattering society. TV and social media are my windows to the world. They offer a broad view, and this allows me to be discriminating when it comes to what i watch. For about the first 20 years of my life, there was no TV or any computers, and hence no social media. Those were idyllic days but, in my declining years, i'm glad to have these arm-chair diversions. @zajiThanks for clearing up the effect/affect thing; yet another example of language evolving. I learn something new everyday, and - "that's a good thing".

Words can get in the way. Thoughts can be things, and maybe at some day in the distant future, we will have evolved to the point where we be able to read other's minds and not have to verbally communicate. @zaji i would be interested to hear if you deliberately used the noun "effect" instead of "affect" which is a verb?

No harm in re-thinking things. A flexible mind stretches the intellect. i went back and made minor revisions on what i first wrote. And i now have second thoughts about calling language a "prison". Life as captured by language, and communication through words are what make us uniquely human. My posts are usually drafts that need to be revised and edited because typing them is a mystical spontaneous exercise. i place my hands on the keyword and my fingers connect with my brain and away i go, just putting my thoughts down, and some of the things that pop into my head don't always make sense. i usually have to re-arrange random paragraphs and put them in sequence. "Magus", huh? i don't know what i am, except crazy. I will admit that Pioneer was probably right in saying that he energizes me. But so do all of you; only in a positive way. i feed off what you say. You stimulate my mind.

i certainly can identify with all of this. I love language, but it is, indeed, a prison. Even so, words can be weapons. The world exists outside the constraints of written symbols and spoken syllables. Sights and sounds are subjective experiences. i especially appreciate conciseness and how brevity is the soul of wit. As i mentioned before, Zen encompasses this esoteric realm. The impact of spaces and pauses, the power of what is not said, the reading between the lines, the awe of silence. There's so much to life that is not spoken. Emotions are a wordless language. Living in the moment can be an eternity of minutes. My daily ritual includes working a patternless crossword puzzle that runs in my daily newspaper. It's me against a totally blank grid. No black squares are included. A list of numbered clues are provided under the headings of Across and Down. You have to fill in the blanks with words that have to be separated from each other by blackening the square/squares between them. In the course of doing this, instead of the grid being my challenger, it gradually become my enabler. i read the clue and stare at the space provided for the answer. Sometimes the clues are easy but the hard ones require that i wrack my brain for an answer. Without fail when the answer is not forthcoming, after staring at length at the blank, the word comes to me, as if it was there all along and i just needed to bring it in focus. And as the completion of the puzzle finally begins to take place, it's like the grid has become my alter ego and together we have brought blank spaces into a completed pattern. it's a very intriguing exercise, one that provides a lot of fufillment because i am always successful in finishing the puzzle Whatever. My take away is that everything we need to know is right before our eyes just awaiting concentration and fruition.

LOL every time i get ready to post this, somebody beats me to the draw for the next opening spot, so what i say now may be off-point, but here's my response to earlier posts... i don't think anybody doubted that there are people out there who agree with Pioneer's points view. I often wondered why they didn't show up and side with him. Because zaji is invariably in lock step with him, i now have my suspicions, and while she is watching me, i am watching her. It's too bad that Pioneer is oblivious to all of all of the admonitions and advice she offers, - her stream of conscious monologues that mesmerize us even as she has lapses where she doesn't practices what she preaches... But, hey, nobody's perfect! . But she's a welcome addition to this forum; the new blood needed! i love her meta-physical vibe. And i love how Mel always provides a different angle to things. But deliver us from a legion of Pioneer clones. It will be like an onslaught from a movie studio, a group of who have stages inside the auditoriums of their skulls, a place where scripts are created and then produced for public consumption, films that objective thinkers will give a thumbs down to. Pioneer lives and dies by his paranoid anecdotal-drenched scenarios. He never thinks past his nose or looks at the big picture because this would require him to be a critical thinker. He has this race issue all plotted out, replete with heroes and villains, naturally casting himself as a hero, obsessed with rescuing black people from the evil white cabal. He apparently thinks that white forces are united and act in concert, all awaiting the next memo sent out by The Man to do this and do that, install one race in some countries and many races in others. "They" are the "them" against "us". He's incapable of taking an over view and seeing that THE SYSTEM has been in place for centuries. White people don't have to do anything but bask in the privilege that comes with the territory. Changes come and go, sentiments shift and stabilize, rights are given and taken back, and THE SYSTEM remains constant - and powerful, leaving black individuals with no choice but to do their best to navigate the obstacle course of white superiority. This debate on race is all about rhetoric that doesn't translate into practice. Its a showcase for exposing Pioneer's lack of credentials, and a discussion that is tailor-made for those who want to vent their frustrations and vie for the last word. No minds are being changed. Del is the only convert on board. Well, that's my scenario. Now amp up your rebuttals. And let the Pioneer dog and pony show continue to chase its tail.

If white people are as clever and devious as you think they are, you need throw in the towel. You might consider that since they have maintained power and control for centuries, all you're doing is blowing hot air in a lost cause, the one thing you're good at. >>YAWN<< Let's make a deal. Quit responding to my posts, and i'll do the same to yours. @zajiLOL WHEW! Doeth the lady protest too much? i can see how Troy might get the "wrong" impression since you seldom agree with him, and never challenge Pioneer because you 2 are on the same page and reinforce each other's views.

If you doubt everything, then you don't believe the words of others.

i like that; "idol" used in place of "idle". I love puns. "I.Don't.Know" is a phrase to live by. i like it because it raises the possibility of there being an answer to the most profound question; we just don't know it. You escape being included in my generalization about people in limbo because, unlike some other people, you don't consider yourself an infallible oracle. One of my favorite adages says: He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child. Teach him.He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.He who knows, and knows that he knows, is a leader. Follow him. Always fun to engage you in conversation.

@zajii really appreciate your insight and clarity, and how you are able to keep yourself in perspective. Some of the things you say are like shoes that fit my feet. i am not deluded about how flawed i am and that is my salvation. I am on a truth seeking mission, myself, and the one truth i've learned is how elusive yet constant the truth is and how the journey supercedes the destination. i really appreciate having you on this board to keep me in check by virtue of what i gain from the thoughts you share. @Pioneer1Did you read Zaji's above post. You could take some lessons from this. Your ego and your imagination are over the the top. A threat you are not. That's something you have imprinted on your psych, in order to feel good about yourself. Why you think that you are anymore riveting than Troy or Del, is beyond me. Most of your long posts i don't even finish reading. i categorize you as a certain type. i've encountered males like you from time to time all my life and they've always turned me off. And, lo behold, one of these types turns up on this board in the person of a deluded boring know-it-all.